Of course, some times were special,
There would be a grilled sandwich…of cheese;
Such a hearty meal this was,
And, a child…this always pleased.

Of course, there were always crackers,
So, crumble them up…good;
Yes, this was healthy eating,
Most of the time…we ate as we should.

Well, here it was…lunch time again,
And, we knew what we had in store;
Why, it would be tomato soup,
Of this…we were quite sure.

Ah-ha!…just when least expected,
Life throws us a curve;
But, this time it was a good one,
One that we really deserved!

“I have a ‘surprise’ for you”,
My baby sitter said;
“Oh, no…thought I,
“It’s probably something that I’ll dread!”

There it was…the cup of hot soup,
Nice and red…creamy tomatoes;
“Nothing new here”…I said to myself,
The ‘surprise’…she soon would show.

“Scoop around on the bottom,
“Scoop and see what is there”;
Well, sure enough…it was a ‘surprise’,
Something I’d not seen…no, ne’ver!

Funny little white things,
With straight and round shapes;
More and more…I found down there,
As off the bottom…I scraped.

“Oh, my goodness!… lookie here,
“Why, this looks like the letter ‘e’;
“And, there’s a letter ‘l’,
“Here are two letter ‘d’s!

“Yes”, said my babysitter,
“It’s called ALPHABET SOUP…you see”;
This was a big ‘surprise’,
A very big ‘surprise’ to me!

“Let’s see if we can use the letters,
“To spell a few words”, said she;
Oh, yes…this was great fun,
And, I enjoyed it…yes, sireee!

So, that was the very beginning,
It’s when I fell in love with 'words';
And, the thrill continues to this day,
My love for the spoken, written, books, poems…'words'!

********

June 18, 2004

Aimee Love
(LHG)